The World Englishes Committee is one of several committees in the Writing and Communication Program at Georgia Tech. The committee consists of Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellows who devote themselves to publishing, teaching, service, and professional development opportunities that align with the committee’s mission statement, which reads,
“While English is the common denominator for communication among diverse cultural groups, the changing roles and functions of English around the world have altered strategies for English language pedagogy. In response to this growing trend and the varieties of spoken and written Englishes, the World Englishes Committee’s mission is to develop physical and digital resources and strategies for Writing and Communication Program faculty and students at Georgia Tech.”
The committee for the 2020-21 academic year consists of four members (three returning, one new): Kendra Slayton (second-year Brittain Fellow and committee chair), Alok Amatya (third-year Brittain Fellow), Jeff Howard (third-year Brittain Fellow), and Eric Lewis (first-year Brittain Fellow.)
You can look at this site’s About Us page to learn more about the individual committee members, but we wanted to provide a little more information about them that you would not necessarily discover by reading their individual bios. As a bonus, in addition to responding to the interview questions below, the committee also took the Pivot questionnaire (popularized in the U.S. on James Lipton’s Inside the Actors Studio), so feel free to take a minute to read their entertaining answers in response to that as well.
Kendra Slayton
Why did you want to be part of this committee?
I have always loved learning languages, and my experiences studying abroad in college and then living in Japan from 2008–2011 led me to experience firsthand what it’s like to be a language learner in a place where the most commonly spoken language is not your native tongue. I love the World Englishes Committee because we try to encourage awareness of what it’s like to learn English as an additional language, as well as bringing awareness to all the varieties of English found throughout the world.
What do you like best about teaching?
It’s hard to decide because there’s a lot that I love about teaching. Since I’m a medievalist, if I had to pick one thing, I’d say that what I like best is helping students see how “old” stories can still teach us something about our own lives. To quote Chaucer in The Legend of Good Women, “if the old books were flown away, / Of remembrance would be lost the way.”
If there weren’t a pandemic and you had a bit of free time, how would you choose to spend it?
Archery! All day every day! I haven’t had range access since March, and my poor scapulae are disappearing!
What is the best movie you’ve seen in the last year?
Parasite. I thought about it for days after I watched it. But I also want to give a shout-out to the best show I’ve watched this year–HBO’s The Watchmen. It has incredible storytelling and acting but is also incredibly relevant to our current events.
What is the book you want to read most but haven’t had a chance to read yet?
My brother’s book! My older brother is also in academia (and also a medievalist–no, this was not an organized family plan), and he published his first academic monograph earlier this year: The Virtues of Economy: Governance, Power, and Piety in Late Medieval Rome.
Alok Amatya
Why did you want to be part of this committee?
World Englishes represents an important commitment towards the heterogeneity of English as it is spoken and written globally. I joined the committee to research and educate more effectively – and as a collective – about English as a global language.
What do you like best about teaching?
One of the things I like about teaching is being able to engage with young minds and their enthusiasm for learning.
If there weren’t a pandemic and you had a bit of free time, how would you choose to spend it?
During the pandemic I’ve missed sharing meals with family and friends. I’d invite a lot of people to a cookout.
What is the best movie you’ve seen in the last year?
Super Deluxe (2019) directed by Thiagarajan Kumararaja.
What is the book you want to read most but haven’t had a chance to read yet?
Nina Lakhani’s Who Killed Berta Caceres?: Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet (2020)
Jeff Howard
Why did you want to be part of this committee?
As a senior in college, I took a Foundations of TESOL course as an elective, and ever since then I have loved continuing to learn more about linguistics, language instruction programs, and ESL/ELL curriculum development. Eventually, I earned a graduate certificate in TESOL as a PhD student rather than take additional literature courses because I felt that the program would help me to become more attuned to the needs of my English language learning students. Providing resources for instructors who wish to know more about the unique circumstances experienced by our multilingual students learning English is an explicit component in the mission of the World Englishes Committee. I wanted to be part of that.
What do you like best about teaching?
My students are the best thing, even the ones who think I’m obsessed with writing. They’re right, of course, but do they have to say that on Rate My Professors? Now, everyone’s going to know that before they even meet me!
If there weren’t a pandemic and you had a bit of free time, how would you choose to spend it?
I’ve been meaning to go to Red Top Mountain State Park, so I would love to take my family camping there if I had some time. We might even visit the Etowah Indian Mounds again, even though I ran into poison ivy there last year. I climbed a tree to take a picture of the Etowah River from above, and a few days later my legs started to fester and itch like mad. Next time, I’ll stay out of the trees.
What is the best movie you’ve seen in the last year?
I starting getting back into Vittorio de Sica’s work earlier this year, and I think it’s a tie among two of his films, Sciuscià (1946) and Umberto D (1952), and Federico Fellini’s La Strada (1954). Apparently, mid-century Italian cinematic tragedy agrees with me. Psychoanalyze that.
What is the book you want to read most but haven’t had a chance to read yet?
Eula Biss’s Notes from No Man’s Land (2009). I read the first essay in the book, and it was so, so good. But I was also reading Ulysses at the time, and I had to finish that one because I needed to get it over with and never look back.
Eric Lewis
Why did you want to be part of this committee?
I am a Global Anglophone scholar who spends a lot of his time working with multilingual writers in classrooms, writing centers, and the CommLab. This committee appealed to me in being dedicated to a major aspect of my work and giving me a chance to think deeply about and improve further in an important component of my scholarship and teaching.
What do you like best about teaching?
I love seeing the new ideas that my students are able to produce. Coming across a great idea and coaching a student through the process of refining it is immensely rewarding.
If there weren’t a pandemic and you had a bit of free time, how would you choose to spend it?
Other than the obvious spending time with people, I miss renting a kayak in a local park and kayaking around a lake or down the St. Joseph River.
What is the best movie you’ve seen in the last year?
Choosing just one is really difficult, but I’ll settle on Autumn de Wilde’s Emma. It’s my favorite Austen adaptation ever. It’s really charming, but at the same time, it makes clearer than any other Austen adaptation that this is a story about silly rich people. I love it.
What is the book you want to read most but haven’t had a chance to read yet?
I’m a huge Star Wars nerd, and although I normally draw the line at the novels, I happened to read the first entry in a series on a recommendation and am now eagerly awaiting the sequel: Shadow Fall.